What is more frightening than sending a child with severe food allergies out to trick or treat on Halloween?
Raising a child who has never experienced that fun.
It’s true, a child with severe allergies likely can’t eat much any of the stuff that’s being handed out in the neighborhood. And if you child is so sensitive that touching or even smelling the goodies causes problems, trick or treat may be out of the question.
For our daughter, milk chocolate or anything with nuts (Snickers, M&Ms, you name it), was pure poison. But Dum-Dum lollypops, Smarties, Sweet-Tarts and Skittles were OK. So we struck a deal.
She carried her goodies in a plastic bucket, and was told not to touch anything until we got home. (That’s good advice for all kids, not just those with allergies) In the house, we dumped out her goodies, as well as her older brother’s. All the offending items in her bucket automatically went to him, in trade for all the goodies he had collected that were safe for her to eat. If her bucket was short, we supplemented it with the lollypops and Smarties we were giving out. (To this day, I always have non-chocolate treats to hand out on Halloween for the occasional kid who needs it.)
After the sorting, each child could pick three pieces to eat that night. And every night after that, they could choose a piece or two from their bucket. After a week, they were sick of all of it, and frankly half the candy got tossed out.
But at ages 24 and 27, they still love Halloween, and still remember the fun they had going out trick or treating together at 3 and 6 – he as Captain Hook and she as his sidekick, the evil pirate Smee.
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